Object Record
Images
Additional Images [3]
Metadata
Object |
Apron |
Date |
ca. 1950 |
Description |
Calico apron made of pink gingham fabric with blue, white and yellow flowers and blue piping at seams. Mostly machine sewn, but some hand sewing. Goes over shoulders with hole for head and two ties at back. Pocket on either side. |
Width (inches) |
27.000 |
Height (inches) |
36.000 |
Information |
In her book Designs on the Heart: The Homemade Art of Grandma Moses, Karal Ann Marling asks a simple but provocative question: "Do artists wear aprons?" Marling goes on to ask a more probing question of this specific apron, which Moses frequently wore as an ad hoc artist's smock while painting: "Was that apron, in the end, what made Grandma Moses . . . someone who belonged in a special category because she was a housewife, a farm wife, and unashamed of it?" Of course, the kitchen apron-cum-artist's smock was perfectly in line with Moses' practical approach to life and her art. She created her art in the same efficient manner that she ran her household, cooked meals for her family, or made a quilt. As one critic noted, "She concocted these paintings much as she made her prize-winning jams, with care, with naturalness and using the homely ingredients that she found about her." Should these issues, often romanticized, be used to categorize an artist or their work? Is categorizing Moses' work as folk art, self-taught, or outsider helpful in any way? |
Related People |
Moses, Anna Mary Robertson (Grandma) |
Credit line |
Museum Purchase |
Catalog Number |
2004.538 |